Safe Return Doubtful

It was a cold night at Poblet Monastery, dropping below zero. It’s at more than 600 metres above sea level so not a surprise at this time of year.

What was a surprise was waking to voices close to the van at six in the morning. The place had been totally peaceful all night. I ignored them for a while, but on stirring from bed it was evident there were several people, cars and even trucks close by.

I thought at first that it was something sort of market day, but having put my contact lenses in, after reading for a while until the sun climbed enough to get a bit of heat in the morning, I realised what was going on. It was the preparation for filming, with tents set up for food, and trucks with ‘The Production Company’ written in English on them. It materialised that an episode of a forthcoming crime drama / murder mystery series was being filmed at the Monastery. 

I took in a two hour circuit that climbed one of the nearby hills which gave an excellent viewpoint, before moving on. I had no wish to be cast as an extra, a passing monk perhaps. 

I’m in the southwest most province of Catalonia, Terres de l’Ebre, in the lower course of the Ebro river. It’s big wine country, and also olives, but better known for its wine. I headed for the quiet village of El Masroig which, like many of the towns in the area, has a cooperative wine operation, Celler Masroig. As well as wine at what seems ridiculously cheap prices, they were selling unfiltered olive oil also. Two litres of olive oil for 15 euros, and two litres of wine for 4.20 euros. There were five litre containers also, but that was a bit much for me. I arrived into the Celler shop area just as a Dutch couple were there, tasting some of the wines, so I joined them, and we agreed that the 4.20 euros wine wasn’t at all bad. 

My chief interest in coming to the area was the hiking opportunities that could be seen from the excellent view from the aire, that the wine company runs for vans and motorhomes. The couple of hiking trails cross the vineyards and olive groves to some spectacular rock cliff formations, called the Avencs of Masroig. I’ve tried, but I can’t translate ‘avencs’; it’s a good word anyway, so maybe it doesn’t need a translation. That was yesterday morning, Thursday, and reaching them with the trails in an overgrown state with many trees down, and a few paths leading nowhere, took a while. More than once I heard wild pigs close by. This never used to be a problem when out with Roja; not consciously he ensured they didn’t come close. 

I had a message the previous evening from a guy I taught with in my first teaching post, in Wallasey, 1983 to 1990. He and his wife retired out here six years ago. They live thirty minutes closer to the coast. I knew they were nearby, but not quote that close. We arranged to meet yesterday afternoon, and had a good chat over coffee in the Masroig cafe in town. It was 35 years since we’d seen each other. This isn’t something I do very often. I’m rarely very keen on it; lives have moved on, different interests these days. But this was pleasant enough. 

Today I’ve moved another half hour to the south, to a town called Bot, which is on the Terra Alta via verde, and has good hiking options also, as well as another wine cooperative. The old station is a good place to stay for a couple of nights. There’s a strong northerly wind and the temperature didn’t get above 8C today, a cold couple of days, but due to get warmer again on Sunday. 

I’ll be around Ebre until then as I have managed to get an appointment at VW Alcañiz early on Monday morning. This isn’t for anything urgent, just for a couple of jobs that have needed doing for a while, an oil change and an oil pressure switch fault. As in my two previous experiences of using VW in Spain, getting an appointment is much easier than in Cumbria, where the waiting time is usually more than three weeks, and the labour charge is considerably less.